Walter Benjamin’s essay, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, proposes the dilution of the aura of an art work through the creation of machines. The argument that returns often is the idea of authenticity. An aspect that allows an artwork to remain authentic is the artistic idea and execution that adheres to the process of creating the final image, and hence also the outcome of the work by the artist. It is the human mind that conceptually develops even a mass produced image that draws itself into a space of the originality of an idea.
Returning to the residency, the reproduction of works in multiples brought about two aspects. The first was the presence of the artist as well as the craftsmen who assisted in the final creation of the work. The second, links to a residency group visit to Ahmedabad’s Calico Museum. Here, the essence of kalamkari was introduced as a layer to thinking about repetition. Referencing pichwai paintings, kalamkari stylistically suggests the artist’s hand or style. This makes for a keen observation of the relation of the artisans' work towards creating an identical or repeated image alongside the screen printers, who also as trained craftsmen replicate metres of fabric that suggest a form of mechanical mass. However, in both instances, human intervention highlights the uniqueness of work.
The form of the image is at the core of the three artists’ works created at the Shift residency. Appearing in the form of factory walls, saree catalogues and molecular breakdowns of plant structures, the image similar to the way it appears in kalamkari patterns has an end result of mass consumption. It moves from layers of discovery into drapes of fabric, screen shafts that play with light and architecture, and hanging mobiles that invite a shift in rethinking the appearances of forms. The notion of repetition in creating also invites the question of decomposition in the context of preservation, an aspect that gets explored in the artists’ works. Impermanence lingers in the form of memory, space and life spans within nature and extinction. There is a play of pixels in unravelling the works of the three artists – a play between clarity and research, and exploration and experiment.
In looking at the works created by the three artists at the Shift residency, all their works loop back to a larger essence of their current practices while allowing for a pause, a shift from within.